Windows 8 Will Need Apps to Win on Tablets

By Nicholas Kolakowski |
Posted 2012-03-01

Windows 8 will
sell millions of copies when Microsoft releases it sometime later in 2012.
Those in the market for a new PC will head to their local electronics store and
find row after row of laptops and desktops loaded with the operating system.
Microsoft will flood the airwaves and Websites with millions of dollars worth
of expert, focus-grouped advertising.

But if Windows
8 doesnt succeed on tablets, it will have failed in its core mission: spread
the Windows franchise beyond the traditional PC and onto the mobile devices
that have increasingly become the center of many users computing lives.

In a bid to
capture the mobile device audience, Microsoft made a radical adjustment to the
Windows 8 interface. The new start screen features large, colorful tiles linked
to applicationsthe better to touch, in the case of tablets. From there, the
traditional desktop interface is still accessible via one click or tap.

These
touch-centric tweaks are intuitive and user-friendly. Many businesses will
certainly appreciate the merging of a lightweight tablet user interface (UI)
with traditional Windows functions and support. But will that be enough to
persuade consumers to purchase a Windows 8 tablet over, say, an iPad 3 or other
touch-screen rival?

At its most
reductive, any operating system is just a platform for running applications. In
light of that, Windows 8 on tablets will ultimately succeed or fail on the
strength of its app ecosystem.

These days,
any ecosystem incorporating mobile devices needs a large collection of apps in
order to succeed with both consumers and businesses. Google Android and Apples
iOS both offer app storefronts with hundreds of thousands of offerings, and
both have seen their accompanying devices rack up impressive sales over the
past few years. (Granted, Android tablets havent sold nearly as well as
Android smartphones, but thats another story entirely.)

Ecosystems
without impressive app counts, meanwhile, have suffered on the marketplace.
Hewlett-Packards webOS never really had a chance. Research In Motion is racing
against time to build at least a starter collection of apps for its upcoming
BlackBerry 10, the operating system on which it has pinned hopes for a
significant revival.

Microsoft
knows what it needs to do in this area. For months, its touted Windows 8 as an
ideal platform for third-party developers looking to make some money. In
conjunction with the release of the Consumer Preview, Microsoft opened the
Windows Store and made a variety of Metro-style apps available to download and
try at no cost. The rumor mill suggests that the next major upgrade of its
Windows Phone platform, referred to as Windows Phone 8, will rely on the
Windows 8 kernel, allowing developers to reuse significant portions of code
when transferring apps from desktop to phone, and potentially increasing the
stickiness of the ecosystem as a whole.

But,
ultimately, itll be up for the developers to create the actual products, and
the users to rush for the ones they find most interesting. Microsoft can only
hope that Windows long history of big sales will persuade those developers to
join the cause.